OCD is not an adjective.

I recently saw this video and felt it should be shared–and heeded. One of the top things that get under my skin is when people casually throw around the term “OCD.” If they are obsessed with something they are “so OCD” about it. If they have a quirk that makes them funny or unique, they are “OCD” It’s a designer term used so frequently it has lessened the mental illness.

You can’t “be” OCD. Just because you like your cookies arranged in pretty jars, have to pull and all-nighter for a report, or like your socks to match your shirt does not mean you have OCD. If you love Christmas you do not have “Obsessive Christmas Disorder,” you just like Christmas. If you love coffee you do not have “Obessive Coffee Disorder”, you just like coffee. If you love sweets are you “so diabetes” about it? If you cry at sad movies and then can go out partying with your friends, is that “so bi-polar of you?” The mental illness is real. OCD is used too often as an adjective… and it shouldn’t be.

Please cease telling those of us with OCD to stop being so sensitive to this. To… get a sense of humor. I have Pure O, a type of OCD that involves intrusive thoughts, not necessarily compulsions. Let me tell you, it’s hell. Kissing my daughter good-bye today I thought: “This is the last time I will ever see her because I am going to die in 5 minutes.” Tell me, was that funny to you? It wasn’t to me. So I will never have a sense of humor over OCD being used causally to sell t-shirts or describe quirks. I would rather people educate themselves to what it really means for those of us that have this disease.

Walk 3 minutes in my brain and get back to me on if you are so “OCD.” Or watch this video and educate yourself….